<p>The comment about popped collars made me laugh. I think popped collars are an East Coast/South phenomena. I can't say as I've ever seen a popped collar on a California kid. You're more likely to find ratty Levi's with a hole in the knee (purposefully put there), minimal makeup on the girls, crotches hanging down on the boys with the requisite boxers showing, skateboard T-shirts and athletic types. Stereotypically, most girls rarely wear a dress, for example, if they own one at all. </p>
<p>Because Stanford draws from country-wide you will find an even split between conservatives and liberals there with everything in between. But, I doubt you'd find many popped collars. ;)</p>
<p>I have seen popped collars here in the Bay Area. Try a couple of the local prep schools. Follow the water polo players. Also, lots of girls wear skirts etc. Not that it's important per se, just in the interest of accuracy. What part of California do you live in?</p>
<p>nngmm, the overall F/M ratio at MIT is pretty close to 1.
Mathmom, I agree that Harvard and MIT seem different enough that it's hard to see why he can't make a decision. On the gender ratio: 49 of 177 MIT math majors are female; I suspect the F/M ratio is even lower at Harvard but I can't find the data. And I agree that he has to decide whether he wants to be around a lot of humanities and social science majors; he doesn't seem to have decided yet. Boy will I be relieved when this process is over!</p>
<p>Have visited all three. Clearly Stanford. Ivy education without the bad weather. My D is a soph there and loves it. Other D heading to Y. Harvard kids reportedly too stressed and stuck up per a friend who works there, and meets a lot of students informally. So pick Stanford, and if not that, Yale. Congrats to her!</p>
<p>I don't know how many women math majors there are now either, (Marite do you know?), when I was a freshman there was one (in the senior class at least). And she got mighty teed off because some of the professors refused to remember her name. I'm sure there are more now, and I trust the professors are less misogynist. When my son was at the Harvard admittance weekend he was quite surprised to find a number of kids trying to decide whether to do computer science at Harvard or MIT. He was mystified what their problem was.</p>
<p>Both of the young women I know currently at Harvard are math majors (applied math, I think). My impression from both of them is that they don't think they are alone in a male field.</p>
<p>I don't know, actually. I think there were 2-3 in Math 55 last year (out of total of 21). There were probably more in lower level intro math courses. But I don't know about the number of female math majors. I don't know the total number of male math majors, either, anyway.
As for cs at Harvard vs. MIT, I suppose the idea is that the cs department being small, there is a good chance of being well mentored at Harvard. My H has a friend who studied math/cs at Harvard in the 1980s and still keeps in touch with Harry Lewis. He speaks very fondly of him. He was invited to Lewis' book launch.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I think there were 2-3 in Math 55 last year (out of total of 21).
[/quote]
Perhaps it was just that year. Honors Analysis at Chicago (a comparable class) is just under half women, I believe. I don't see any reason why this would differ between the two schools, so maybe it was just a fluke that year. (Or maybe it's just a fluke this year at Chicago.)</p>
<p>My brother is fond of Harry Lewis too. He spoke to my son both over the phone and at candidate's weekend, but I don't think he convinced my son!</p>
<p>citrusbelt, LOL. For better or worse the Internet boom in the late 1900's brought an influx of people to Northern California that us old hippies just couldn't absorb as we had done other waves. The VW buses are gone, replaced by nothing but Mercedes and BMWs. I have even seen kelly green pants in Palo Alto. </p>
<p>Let's have a moment of silence for Ken Kesey. He must be appalled...</p>
<p>Wishing happy decisions tonight from the D and S still struggling through this thread, I am responding instead to two comments above on this page:</p>
<p>paying3, I just reread Slaughterhouse Five last week, the tie-breaker rubric is not from there. And I can't find it by googling, sorry....</p>
<p>Alu, "The VW buses are gone...." in the Bay Area?! Not from my driveway, they aren't! ;)</p>
<p>no bad choices here.............now it comes down to "feel", "fit" and the extras. </p>
<p>Stanford definitely wins in the lifestyle/weather category. Harvard wins in the big, really great city category. Yale wins in the really great campus category. We looked at all 3 with D. </p>
<p>D felt that of the 3, the only really "happy, smiling students" were at Yale but admittedly, Stanford was in summer session, so not the best time to judge. D lives in Boston now and still thinks the Harvard kids are generally high-stressed and don't smile much. She is glad she chose NOT to go to Harvard.</p>
<p>I hate to sound like Henny Penny (the sky is falling!), but you might consider that the odds are getting better and better that there will be a major earthquake in California in the coming years.</p>
<p>momfromme: I believe the record breaking floods this winter were on the east coast. No blizzards here out west, either. California has very strict building codes for colleges, hospitals, and all other major public facilities. Even during the larger quakes in the past few decades, the damage is to old, poorly constructed buildings. Stanford and Palo Alto are very safe.</p>
<p>Stanford did a lot of retrofitting of its major buildings after the last earthquake - I believe that the Memorial Church and the main library were closed for several years while the work was being done.</p>
<p>I love northern California and lived there for more than half a decade. And sometimes I really miss the sunny days of February when it is dreary in Maine. But I also love snow and you don't have the potential for fires, severe damage, even deaths from even intense winters and northeast springs when compared to what can happen with a major earthquake.</p>
<p>That said, I would be comfortable with my own D going to school out there, certainly at a great school like Stanford. I just wanted to add that piece to the discussion. After seeing the horrible pictures of the Bay Bridge earlier today, it reminded me of the damage after an earthquake 15-20 years ago.</p>